1689 London Baptist Confession (part 26)

We've been talking the last few weeks about sanctification, about how we are sanctified, what it means to be sanctified.

And last week, Pastor Bob gave us the jugular quote that we are worksy people, worksy people.

What did he mean by that, that we are worksy people? He wasn't trying to, you know, talk about, what's his name,

Gollum from the Lord of the Rings, you know, kind of a worksy, add something to the end of it to be cute.

What does it mean that we are worksy people, all six of us here? We want to do works.

We want to measure our holiness, our righteousness, our Christlikeness in terms of what we do, not what

Christ has done, but what we do. He said, he also said, Pastor Bob should be here.

He said, you know, we have this tendency to set goals for ourselves and to punish ourselves if we don't meet them.

And he said, you know, for example, no Bible, no breakfast. Now, is that a bad rule?

Is it a bad rule to say, I want to read my Bible before I eat breakfast? It's not a bad rule.

But if somehow your goal is, or your thinking is, you know what,

I'm going to deny myself breakfast until I eat my Bible and thereby show my obedience, that my priority is that.

In fact, I have to say this. It's interesting because somebody posted this.

It's a pastor in Bakersfield. I know I have the quote here somewhere.

This quote here. Now, I want us to measure this and maybe this will be a good starting point here.

This is a quote, you either treasure Jesus above all or you're not saved. If you don't value

Jesus above everything else, you don't have saving faith. Now, is that true?

What did Jesus say? Love me more than father, mother, sister, brother. You know, love me more than anything.

Is that true? Yes. Is it potentially dangerous to say if you don't love

Jesus more than anything else in this world, you're not saved? I think it's potentially dangerous.

Why? Why would I say that it's potentially dangerous? If you ever sin, you're not saved.

It's the same thing as saying that. Why is that? And it's this easy.

At the moment you sin, what are you choosing? Not God.

You're not saying, I love you, Lord. Let me show you by this sin that I'm about to commit, right?

So if that statement is absolute, right?

If you don't love the Lord Jesus every moment, every second, every day to the fullest extent such that you don't sin, then you're not saved.

Then what is that? If you're not perfect, you're not saved.

That sounds a lot like what works righteousness.

Now, again, I think there is certainly a biblical element there.

Christ needs to be your first priority, but if you're saying that if you don't do this, if you're not acting on this, if you're not thinking this way all the time, then you're not saved, then you have a real issue because then nobody would be saved.

We're all stuck. Basically, I would summarize it this way.

Are we saved on the basis of our obedience? What are we saved on the basis of?

How does anyone get saved? How is anyone declared righteous? Christ's obedience, right?

Not our obedience. And we'll talk about this here more later.

But anyway, we're talking about there are dangers on either side of us.

If we want to walk, if we want to follow Christ, there are two dangers to avoid, and those dangers are not obedience, but legalism and antinomianism, anti -legalism, anti -the law, right?

If you just think, well, God will love me more if I obey more, then you've got a problem.

And if you say, well, God can't love me anymore no matter what I do, so I will do whatever

I want, then you also have a problem. You're wrong on either side. So the goal, and really the knife's edge we want to be walking on is

I want to be fixed on Christ, I want to follow him, but I need to understand that if I obey, can you obey too much?

I don't think so, right? Is that possible? I confess the sin of obeying too much.

No. So on the one hand, though, what I don't want to do is measure my, either my love for the

Lord or my, well, let me put it another way because I'll get to R .C.

Sproul here in a little bit, but he said, he said the dangers are, you know, one side legalism, the other side antinomianism.

And if we, if we measure our salvation by obedience, then we're, then we're failing.

And if we don't look at obedience at all, then we're also failing. Let's move on here.

John Calvin said the spirit creates faith through the gospel and this faith bears fruit in love and from love proceed good works.

The source of love is the grace of Christ. The mortification of the flesh is the effect of the cross.

What he means is this, the affections that we have for God come from what?

Do we naturally generate those ourselves? No. So they come from the grace of God.

Those affections that we have for God are actually God at work in us. And on the other hand, he said that, um, the good works, well, all the good works come from Christ.

The faith that we have comes from Christ. Everything that we have is from Christ. The mortification of the flesh is the effect of the cross of Christ.

In other words, why is it that we want to put off sin? Why is it that we're even aware that we sin?

What is it that tells us Gary, the Holy Spirit who takes up residency in us when we are regenerated?

So it's an effect of regeneration of being saved in the first place that we're even cognizant of the fact that we have offended

God, that we sin against him. Calvin makes the point that you can't receive any of Christ's gifts without receiving

Christ himself. And if you know, this is important. If you are united to Christ, that is to say, if you are in Christ, you cannot fail to receive the gifts, the gifts of sanctification, the gifts of the

Holy Spirit. Are we, this is an easy one.

Are we active or passive in sanctification? And I think

I want to give a third option, but that would give it away. Are we active or passive in sanctification?

Okay, we work, but God is working through us. So here's the third option. See what you think about this. We are responsive in sanctification.

What do you think of that one? I mean, we certainly say we're responsible, right?

Work out your salvation in fear and trembling. But if it's all up to us, then what?

Saved by grace, justified by grace, we're going to be ultimately glorified by grace, right?

Because we're not going to fully measure up. There's no way we can ultimately deserve merit, salvation.

But in the middle, in our sanctification, it's all by effort alone.

No, it's God at work in us, through us, and then we respond to that.

Interesting, this is Van Dyck's horn. He says, we do indeed receive our sanctification as a gift, not only at the beginning, but throughout the life of daily renewal.

Believers are always active in love because they are united to Christ alone through faith alone.

As Luther said, faith is a busy thing. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that it's self -generated faith that responds in self -generated work.

It means that God is at work in us, and as a response to that, we are busy.

Faith is always looking for something to do. Sanctification is dependent upon justification, but it is not the same as justification.

Why is that so important that justification and sanctification are not the same thing? We mentioned this last week.

Why is that so important, Anthony?

Okay, you don't want it to be works -based. Even more fundamental for us is this.

The mixing of sanctification and justification, there's a word for that. We don't want it to be works -based, but there's a word for, well, let's put it another way.

There is a religion in which justification and sanctification are mixed, and that religion is Roman Catholicism.

In fact, if I can find this here in my notes, which I'm sure I can, he said with great surety, and then couldn't find it.

Oh, yeah, here we go. Again, just thinking about R .C. Sproul having watched his funeral this week,

I thought it was interesting because, I don't even need my notes for this. He said, when

MacArthur, how many of you saw the funeral? It's still on YouTube and stuff like that, a few of you did.

He recounted how MacArthur did, how Sproul was confronting those who wanted to get together.

This is in 1994, 95, evangelicals and Catholics together, the kind of like, we're united in all these things, and they had this document.

And basically, what it had to do was set aside the doctrine of justification by faith alone.

And what the document said was, we are justified by faith. And Roman Catholics could agree to that.

What they objected to was faith alone, nothing added.

Why would they object to that? Because they believe in justification by works.

That is to say, Rome, if you read the Council of Trent, not like reading, so I wouldn't recommend it, except for maybe on a

Saturday night, when you're trying to get to bed early, so you can get to Sunday school, says that you cannot know ever during this lifetime that you are saved.

You can't know that. Why is that? Why does

Rome say that you can never know that it's presumptuous, that it's actually anathema to say that you are saved, that you can know that you're saved, and saved by faith alone,

Corey? Right, you might just commit that one last sin, that mortal sin before you die, not receive extreme unction, and there you go off to purgatory.

Because you are responsible for your justification by performing, by receiving grace, by performing certain works.

They say that Christ's death is not sufficient for you. So here's Sproul in this meeting with these evangelical leaders.

I think it was Chuck Colson, who are the other guys? James, was

Dobson in there too? Packer, J .I. Packer, I know Packer was in there. And here's

Packer, this guy who wrote these great books in the 50s and 60s, and now he's on this slide downward.

And Sproul gets up on the table, and he's begging these men. Why is he so insistent on this point, that we not compromise with the

Roman Catholics over this idea of justification being by faith? He says to them, he says, listen,

I'm not concerned about the Roman Catholic Church. I'm concerned for you men, because if you believe this, your salvation is at stake.

When you blur sanctification and justification, you are essentially saying Christ isn't enough.

Jesus didn't pay at all. I need something else. I have to do something. And again, sanctification is a gift.

It is a gift. Not only in the beginning, but throughout the life, daily life of renewal, believers always act in love, because they're united to Christ alone, through faith alone.

This is the reality of our life. I really like this line.

It is unusual, and I think inappropriate, to import the monergism, synergism, antithesis, typically belonging to the debate over the new birth and justification into sanctification.

In other words, to say that, and this is kind of what we've been wrestling with. Is sanctification monergistic or synergistic?

And he says, it's unusual, and I think inappropriate to use those terms.

Why? He says, it is better to simply say that we are working out the salvation that Christ has already won for us and given to us by his spirit through the gospel.

Though in sanctification, unlike justification, faith is active in good works, the gospel is always the ground, and the spirit is always the source of our sanctification, as well as our justification.

As John Owen expressed it, the doctrine of justification is the directive of Christian practice.

And in no other evangelical truth is the whole of our obedience more concerned.

For the foundation, reasons, and motives of all our duty towards God are contained therein. In other words, the law always tells us what

God requires, and the gospel always tells us what God has done for sinners, and why they should now yield themselves to righteousness.

Why should we be concerned about our sanctification? Because Christ has won it for us, he has granted it to us, and it is our responsibility, therefore, to work it out.

And he goes on to say, in Roman Catholic and other synergistic schemes, we are working toward union with God, a final justification according to works.

In evangelical teaching, however, we are working out of, or better, from the union with Christ that is already ours.

In sanctification, we are striving, training, and running a race to the finish line, not toward justification, but from justification to our glorification.

We're already justified. Our glorification is in front of us, and it is sure.

The sanctification is us working this out in time, and by the way, we won't be fully glorified, we won't be fully perfect until we reach heaven.

Thoughts or questions here so far? And again, from Calvin, he says, the consciences of believers in seeking assurance of their justification before God should rise above and advance beyond the law, forgetting all law righteousness.

For there, the question is not how we may become righteous, but how, being unrighteous and unworthy, we may be reckoned righteous.

In other words, and I've said this in another way, and let's go back to that way, because it might be a little simpler.

Of what value, instead of the law, of what value is the gospel to us?

Now that we're saved, of what value is the gospel to us on a daily basis?

Does it have any value? Yes. Okay. A reminder to be humble, right?

Why? Because of what God has done for us, right? And a reminder of our need for a savior, which is to say that if we just have this mindset of all that Jesus has done for me, and we think about who we are, then what does that do for us each and every day?

How does that? Yes, go ahead. Gratitude, humility.

And if you have those things, if you're grateful, if you're humble, then that impacts how you live, how you view life, how you approach each and every day.

That's a great point, Will. It should give us a great deal of empathy for others, for the unsaved.

You know, it's easy to, well, you tell me. Is it easy to get angry with unsaved people?

Because not only do they sin like we all sin, but are they less likely to feel bad about it?

So, you know, we can get angry with them, right? Or we could say, you know what?

The anger, my anger toward them really isn't going to help them. What might help them is some empathy and some good news.

I have good news for you. Good news is you don't have to be such a jerk. No, that's...

No, it... preach you the gospel yourself. Reminding you yourself of what

God has done for you ought to give you humility in terms of just you're dealing with other people.

Understanding that not only are you no better than them, but you are more blessed, right?

And it ought to create, if not an evangelistic zeal in you, which many people just never get, but it ought to give you just a little sense in which

I'm almost being, well, you are being selfish. If you won't tell somebody how they can be forgiven of all their sins, how they can be right before God.

Sometimes I just wonder, you know, if everybody approached evangelism the way that we do, right?

If everybody was like, well, I'm too nervous. I'm too shy. I'm too... how would you have gotten saved?

If nobody was willing to share Christ with you, how would you have gotten saved? And part of the sanctification process, part of reminding ourselves of the goodness of the

Lord in saving us, is that there's an outflow of that, of a desire to want to share Christ.

You know, when something really great happens to you, you know, I'll just go to the worldly extreme.

You win the lottery. Now, initially, you might not want to tell anybody because you're going to have a lot of long lost relatives and so -called friends who, you know, want something from you.

But would that be something that you would hide from your closest friends? I'm not going to tell, you know,

Corey because I don't want him to get jealous. No, everybody would tell, you know, they would tell their closest friends and family about it.

But somehow when we get saved, when we become a Christian, when we're no longer enslaved to our sin, when we know that we're going to heaven, somehow that becomes a private kind of secret that I don't want to share with anybody.

And I think, well, I don't even think I know that salvation is greater than winning the lottery because the lottery doesn't transfer.

So, and you don't win anyway. Nobody wins the lottery. Let's see,

Owen says this. Christ is not the law. He is not proposed in it, not communicated by it.

We are not made partakers of him thereby. In other words, it's not the law that saves.

This is the work of grace of the gospel. In it, Christ is revealed for, by it, he is proposed and exhibited unto us.

Thereby we are made partakers of him and all the benefits of his mediation. And he, it is alone who came to and can destroy the work of the devil.

We just need to be reminded constantly of all that Christ has done for us so that we do have that attitude of gratitude

Let me just move on here to, let's go to Philippians 2 for a moment because I just want to get back to that.

Philippians 2. And we've talked about this.

I just want to say a couple of things about that before we move on to R .C.

So I'm going to start in verse 4.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

And always notice those words whenever you see them, especially in the epistles, in Christ Jesus.

This is the mind that is given you because you are in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedience to the point of death, even death on a cross. Thereby God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So that the name of Jesus, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

And every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God, the father. Therefore, because of all this that has gone before, because of who

Christ is, because of what he has done. As you have always obeyed, so now.

Not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for, because it is

God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So in light of the gospel, in light of what Jesus has done for you, in light of who he is, therefore work out your salvation in fear and trembling.

But you can also know this, that God is at work in you. Now, the commentator says this, he says the apostolic demand is awesome.

However, the Philippians are not left to their own devices because God himself is powerfully working in them to achieve his gracious saving purposes in their lives.

So I wanted to stress that just that we hear this work out your salvation, but it's not like you're left on your own.

You have the power of God at work in you. And I want to just kind of close here today as we,

R .C. Sproul was buried this week, the memorial service for him this week. And I want to read just a couple of things from the

Westminster Confession of Faith. And then just read, by the way, we have a three volume set shrink wrapped in the bookstore.

By R .C. Sproul on the Westminster Confession of Faith for $10. That's unbelievable.

Okay, let me just read a couple of sections of the Westminster Confession of Faith. I know we're studying the

London Baptist Confession of Faith, but I think the Westminster Confession here does some really nice things about, or with the idea of sanctification.

The sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life.

There abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part. Whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

Does this sound like either like your life or like any part of scripture? And then the next section in which war, the spiritual war that's going on in you, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail.

What would we call that when the remaining corruption in you prevails? Sin, okay?

They could have just said that, you know. Yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, the regenerate parts doth overcome, and so the saints grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

So here's the point. You know, there are hurdles in life, temptations, right?

And sometimes you're going to leap across them, and sometimes what's going to happen? You're going to fall flat on your face.

And, you know, as I get older, the idea of an obstacle course becomes less and less appetizing. I mean,

I watch these people do things like, what's that run called? A steeplechase, where they jump across the puddles of water and stuff like that.

And when I was younger, I probably would have thought, oh, that's easy. Now I'd just be like, that's terrifying. I could drown in that two inches of water over there, you know?

Now this is all from R .C.'s book here. He says, you know, obviously sanctification from the word sanctified to consecrate, to make holy.

He said in the Old Testament, the high priest was only allowed to enter the holy of holies once a year.

It was a big deal. In other words, to approach ultimately God. When God sets apart believers, he commands them to be holy.

1 Peter 1 verses 14 to 16. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.

Now just think about that for a minute. He's saying, stop being what? What you were before you got saved, when you were ignorance, your former ignorance.

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. But when we think about God, his holiness is perfect.

It's unattainable. It's beyond us. It's a holiness that only drives us to despair.

To like Isaiah, what does he do? What he says, he sees the holiness of God. He doesn't say, oh, that's nice, right?

He's undone. I'm a wicked man who lives among wicked people. R .C.

loves to say this, and I won't be able to say it right, I'm sure. But the Latin term is simul justus et peccator.

Which means at the same time, just and a sinner.

Why is that so key for us to understand? At the same time, just and a sinner.

Gary. Okay, because we're never going to stop sinning until we get to heaven.

But our position is righteous. We're wrapped in the robes, as it were, of Christ's righteousness.

We have his perfection imputed to our account. Here's what he says.

He says, we are justified before we are sanctified. We are declared righteous before we are righteous.

If we had to wait until we were fully sanctified to be justified, then we'd have a real problem.

And as I said earlier, Rome teaches one is not justified until one is inherently just.

And that's a problem. That's a real problem because we're not going to get there. R .C.

said this, quote, we are justified because of somebody else's righteousness.

Namely, the righteousness of Christ. Is a justified person still a sinner? Yes. Is the justified person a changed person?

Always. Is it possible to be a totally carnal Christian? I'll ask you, is it possible to be a totally carnal

Christian? Maybe I should describe what a carnal Christian is. A carnal Christian is somebody who has no desire for righteousness.

Is it possible to be a totally carnal Christian? No. Well, why is that?

Because something happens at the moment of justification. Something happens at the moment of salvation.

And that is OK. And the tricky kind of it's not really a 25 cent word.

The nickel word for that is regeneration. You must be born again.

And when you are born again, something happens. Something begins. And that process is sanctification.

You're saved. You're given a new nature. And when you're given that new nature, new affections begin.

And I don't know about you. But I think one of the first convictions for me, when

I got saved was I went into work one day. And it was bizarre because all the same voices were there.

All the same comments were there. All the same humor was there. And it was no longer funny.

And I have to admit, you know, for a moment or two, it was a little disappointing. But things that I thought were hysterical became offensive to me.

And then something even more bizarre happened. The things that I wanted to say,

I didn't say. And people started looking at me funny like, what's wrong with you?

It's just not, I just couldn't look at things the same way. Right. Well, what happens when you have that new nature is your, let's just put it this way.

I think your conscience is among the first things to get transformed.

You know, what you had done to your conscience, even having the law of God in your heart, right?

Because that doesn't happen when you get saved. That happens from birth. You know, you have a conscience that tells you what's right and what's wrong.

I mean, I remember the first great big sin I committed was probably, you know, when I say great big sin,

I don't just mean a little one. Like burglary, I think I was about five. And true, true story.

We never intended to do this. We went over to somebody's house. They weren't home. We just walked in and helped ourselves with what was in their kitchen.

And there was something exciting about that. I might've been six, I don't know, five or six, something like that.

You know, the scars are sort of healed. I can still remember there was an excitement, you know, in doing that.

Even, you know, I didn't think, oh, I'm stealing or whatever, but I knew that something was wrong, but it felt like fun.

What happens when you get saved is your conscience is renewed so that the things that once seem attractive are now repellent.

The things that you were delightful to you, if nothing else, you know that they're wrong.

It may be hard to resist them, but you know that they're wrong. So there's a transference of affection, a transference of desire, a change of mind.

Yeah. I mean, are you going to, are you asking, you know, then if it's a gradual process?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I totally think so. You know, when the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you, as he does at the moment of regeneration, you know, he is at war against your sinful inclinations.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Erickson. Yeah, I don't want to go with that exactly because that just opens up a whole new issue.

But I understand what you're saying. I think there's a very much a new awareness at the moment of regeneration of what is pleasing and displeasing to God.

Now, again, I think as we inform, as we train, as we, as our conscience is renewed, you know, by the word,

I mean, when we talk about renewing your mind by the washing of the word, I think there's some work of the

Spirit there through the word of God, where we become more aware of what pleases

God and what displeases him, what sin is and what sin isn't. So I think that is a process too.

I think, you know, some of the things that are more glaring, you know, immediately become obvious to us.

Other things might take longer, but yeah. Um, so carnality, you know, the idea of people who want nothing to do with obedience or the things of God that that that's just oxymoronic for a

Christian. And he says here, the power of the

Holy Spirit makes it necessary for sanctification to follow justification. In other words, what you said, once the

Holy Spirit takes up residence in you, sanctification is inevitable. It may be slow. It may be painful, worse than what we that we want.

Um, you know, I mean, if we just think about the apostle Paul, we think about Saul running around persecuting the church.

And then from the moment of salvation, all he wants to do is make that right.

You know, he's no longer interested in the things that used to consume all of his time. Now, that's kind of an extreme example.

But, you know, the more extreme our behavior was, I think the more likely that there's going to be a bigger, noticeable change right away.

Um, he talks about the heresy of perfectionism. You know, I mean, there's an amazing thought to think about that as being a heresy.

Perfectionism. He says the church has been assaulted in every generation by the heresy of perfectionism.

He says for a person to be convinced he is without sin in this life.

Excuse me. He must make a radical adjustment downward of the requirements of God.

Right. He even quotes somebody of saying that he saw on TV saying, you know,

I would confess my sins to God if I had any. There's a problem there.

If people become convinced of their own perfection, they're missing the point. Because we can't be perfect in this lifetime because we're not

God. It's only when we see Jesus face to face that we will be as he is.

How do you suppose that people do that? How do you suppose that they decide that they've reached a point where they no longer sin?

Besides downgrading the standard of God? Yes, Gary. Yeah, I think in some cases they've hardened their hearts.

They've seared their consciences somewhat. R .C. quotes from 2nd

Corinthians 10 verse 12 now. And this is an implication for the text. He's talking about the false apostles.

Paul writes this. He says, not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves.

But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

So in other words, if we look around at everybody and we say, you know what? In light of where everybody else is,

I'm really an A student. Janet, you must have been reading with me.

Yes, because that's exactly right. They make a list of things. And he talks about the parable of the publican and the

Pharisee. And what does the Pharisee say? I thank you that I'm not like these other people or even like this tax gatherer.

These are the things that I do, and I'm nothing like those people. So that's how people convince themselves of that.

I'm going to kind of scan here as we close. And he says that in scripture, even the best people are flawed.

You know, if you think about any sites, a couple from the Old Testament, a couple from the New Testament. If you think about even people like certainly

Abraham, very flawed. David, I mean, there's nobody you can look at. You know, this is why

I always, I always enjoy this. Just this is free. I always enjoy when people say, well, Christianity is a made up religion.

And I'm like, OK, first of all, you have to just kind of do the math and think, how could these guys over all this time without computers, you know, put something coherent together.

But the second thing is, I'm like, OK, if I were to sit down and make up a religion, and write down scripture and write down my own story, what would

I do? Erase all the faults.

I'm going to make myself look good. And yet the consistent testimony of scripture is people are bad, right?

I mean, you look around at other religions, the people aren't so bad. I mean, whether it's

Joseph Smith. I watched this video of them talking about Joseph Smith, and it was really nauseating. But whether it's

Joseph Smith or Muhammad, the founders of these religions are really seen as good people. And there are a lot of good people in them, according to them.

But the Bible, the Bible is filled with losers. You know,

God is righteous and men are sinful. Let's just close with this.

Quote from Sproul, he says, growth in the Christian life is labor intensive. We have to work at it to study, to pray, to worship.

And even after we do all those things on a regular basis, we are still sinners. He goes on to say, we won't live like Christ.

Until we start thinking like Christ, to know what Christ thinks we have to do what?

We have to know the word of God. He says, we cannot dabble and expect to see changes in our lives.

We cannot dabble. I mean, I have some other controversial things here, but we'll just kind of save those for another day.

So let's close in prayer. Father, we thank you that you,

Father, Son, and Spirit are at work in the lives of your people. That when you have called us, then saved us in time.

You, the person of the Holy Spirit will work in us to finish the work that you have begun by grace.

Everything is of grace. We respond to that grace, but we have no merit, no claim to righteousness.

Nothing that we can bring to you and suggest that in any way you owe us.

Or that we are responsible for anything good within us. Anything good in us is a testimony to your work in sanctifying us and conforming us into the image of Christ Jesus.

Bless each one here. And Father, just bless us as we continue to worship you. In Jesus name we pray.